The licensee notified the
Kentucky Department of Public Health and Safety, Radiation Health Branch on April 16, 2012 at 1135 (
CDT) of a missing
static eliminator. The
static eliminator was discovered to be missing by an oncoming operator on April 13, 2012 at 0700 (
CDT). An operator on the previous shift reported the device to be in place. The Director of Facility Operations was not in the office on April 13, 2012 and was not made aware of the missing device until April 16, 2012 at 0715 (
CDT). The licensee initiated a search for the device on April 16, 2012 at 0715 (
CDT) but has been unsuccessful in locating the device. The licensee plans to continue searching for the device. The licensee does not suspect tampering or theft and no exposures to personnel have occurred or are expected at this time. The device is a Model P-2021
Static Eliminator, Serial # A2HU670, with a 10 mCi
Po-210 source.
Kentucky Radiation Health Branch Report number KY120007.
No other notifications have been made by the licensee.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
Note: This device is assigned an
IAEA Category 3 value based on the actual radioactivity of the source, not on the device type. (Reference
IAEA RG-G-1.9)